Lady In Red

by Fayrene Preston

  Her frown deepened. “That voice… He sounds like the man who called me. Who is he?” Zach dropped his feet to the floor and straightened. “Delbert , get in here.”

  A young man of perhaps twenty stuck his head around the corner of the door, his eyes round with apprehension. “Yes, Mr. Bennett?” Zach waved him in. “Come in.”

  The young man’s gaze went to Cassidy, and he swallowed hard, sending his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down.

  He entered the office with a slow and obvious reluctance, giving her a chance to study him. He was dressed neatly in jeans and a plain black T-shirt. His face was clean-shaven, and his hair was pulled back in an orderly ponytail.

  Cassidy gazed with disbelief at him, because what she saw didn’t come close to jiving with the mental picture she had had of him. He was so young! “You're Deep Teddy Bear?”

  He shifted nervously from one foot to the other. “Ma’am?”

  “Shut the door, Delbert,” Zach said.

  “Uh, sir, I haven’t delivered all the mail yet.”

  “Shut the door, Delbert. The mail can wait.”

  “Yes, sir.” Delbert closed the door, then stood uncertainly, halfway between the door and Zach’s desk.

  Zach got right to the point. “Did you call Miss Stuart with information regarding plans for a theft of the new video game?”

  Delbert cast a sideways glance at Cassidy. “Did she say I did?”

  Cassidy had been listening closely to his voice. “It is you, isn’t it? I had pictured someone much older from the way you sounded on the phone.”

  Delbert developed an interest in the toes of his tennis shoes, staring fixedly down at them. “Well, ma’am. I've had a cold, and my voice sounds a little huskier and deeper than usual.”

  “Who are you, anyway?”

  Zach answered her. “His name is Delbert Houghton, and he’s worked in our mail room for about a year.”

  “A year and a half, actually, sir.”

  “For heaven’s sake, why all the secrecy? Why didn’t you just come and tell Mr. Bennett what you knew?”

  “Uh, well…” He rubbed his nose. “Mr. Ben- nett’s the head of the company, and uh, well, I didn’t know him very well, or uh, exactly who I could trust, uh, and so…”

  Zach sighed. “Sit down, Delbert.”

  Delbert gratefully collapsed into the chair next to Cassidy’s. “Thank you, sir.”

  “Would you like a soda or something?”

  His eyes widened with alarm over the fact that the president of the company was offering him refreshments. “No, sir, I’m fine.”

  “Good. Okay, then, I want you to start at the beginning and tell us everything you know, including how you happened to overhear the telephone conversation.”

  “Okay, well, it was after work …”

  “Go on,” Zach said encouragingly.

  “And - and I’d gone out to get in my car and go home. But, well, it wouldn’t start. So I came back into the building to call my brother so he could come jump-start me, and I went into an office and picked up the receiver of the phone and started punching buttons to see if I could get a line out.” He shifted in his seat, clearly gaining more confidence as he went. “Well, one of the buttons I pushed happened to be lit up. I realized my mistake and was about to push another button when I heard the words ‘ten million dollars.’ ” He paused and glanced from Zach to Cassidy and back to Zach again. “I don’t often hear anyone speak about sums of money like that, and I don’t know, I just hesitated for a second, and then I heard one of the people say that Bennett’s new video game was almost finished, and that he would be able to deliver the whole package soon. The other man - he spoke with an accent - he said they would need it in the next eight days for it to be worth their while, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to get the jump on Bennett’s production schedule.”

  Zach looked at Cassidy and cocked an eyebrow. “I guess it wasn’t a hoax.”

  A pain stabbed at her heart. He was hurt. Now he knew for certain that one of the people he had trusted with his dream had betrayed him. And as Cassidy absorbed the fact of his hurt, her desire to find out who was trying to steal the video game grew, not because the knowledge would give her a good story, but because she desperately wanted to help him.

  She turned to Delbert. “What else can you tell us? For instance, you said ‘he.’ Was the caller a man?”

  Delbert shrugged. “He sounded male.”

  “Which phone did you use?” Zach asked.

  “One of the phones in the pit, but I couldn’t tell if there was anyone in the offices that open out onto the pit.”

  “Those are the supervisors’ offices,” Zach said to Cassidy. “Delbert, did you see anyone afterward?”

  “No, sir, and I didn’t particularly want to either. I figured they wouldn’t be too happy with me eavesdropping like that. I called my brother real quick, and then went outside to wait for him.” He glanced at Cassidy. “I thought about what I’d heard all night, and the next morning telephoned Miss Stuart.”

  For the first time since Delbert had begun talking, humor returned to Zach’s eyes. “You had a hot potato in your hands, didn’t you?”

  Delbert nodded, relieved that Zach seemed to understand. “Right. I don’t want to be in the mail room forever. One day I'd like to get my degree and move on up the ladder. But since I didn’t know who I’d overheard, I had to be careful about the toes I stepped on. And I didn’t have the nerve to come to you, Mr. Bennett, so I decided to go outside the company to Miss Stuart. I was hoping she could break the story before any damage was done to the company.”

  “At least you didn’t keep the information to yourself.”

  “I couldn’t in all good conscience,” he said earnestly. “And I’m sorry I panicked when I saw you two together, but I began to get paranoid. It just struck me as funny that I’d never seen you two together before, and then suddenly you were together every time I turned around. ”

  Zach smiled kindly. “We think it's hilarious too. Thank you, Delbert. And if you think of anything else that might help, or overhear anything else, please come and tell us.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Cassidy waited until Delbert left the room, then commented, “We don’t seem to know a lot more than we did before he told us. The mystery of Deep Teddy Bear is solved, but I still need to check up on the supervisors, only now, at least, I'll only have to check up on the three men.”

  “It could still be Janet. Remember, she's had a cold too.”

  She nodded thoughtfully. “I guess that’s right.She did sound husky yesterday. Well, shoot. We’re back to four.” She sighed. “Okay, then, I guess I’d better get started.” She stood up, and so did Zach. “I’ll go check out the security first.”

  He came around the desk to her and took hold of her arms. “Be careful. I can’t imagine any of them are dangerous, but then it was hard for me to believe any of them would steal from me. And ten million dollars is a lot of money in anyone’s book.”

  Her mouth curved into a wry grin. “I know. Don’t worry. I’ll be all right. And I won’t leave the building without telling you.”

  “That’s good,” he said softly. “That’s very good.”

  Cassidy instinctively tensed as she realized the mood in the office had suddenly changed. But before she could react, he lowered his head and kissed her, and the tension drained out of her.

  His kisses stimulated her senses, robbed her of strength, stole away her reason. She should hate his kisses, but she was very much afraid she was growing to love them. As soon as he put his lips to hers, problems and objections disappeared. He made her want him, need him…

  “Zach?” His secretary’s voice came over the intercom. “You have a telephone call on line three.”

  He gently drew away and gazed down at her. “Go sleuth, sweetheart. I’ll see you later.”

  Six

  Cassidy slid into Zach’s plans for the evening without objection and without subjecting hers
elf to too much self-analysis about the reason she did. For once in her life she decided to try to relax and enjoy herself. And amazingly enough she did.

  She and Zach attended Bobby’s basketball game, stayed afterward to congratulate him on his team’s victory, and then went out to dinner. She laughed a lot during dinner, but she also gave some consideration to what was happening between Bobby and Zach.

  It was apparent to her that they really liked each other. Their interest and affection for each other had been instant, and there’d been nothing she could do to stop it. But, she reasoned, Bobby was older now and would be able to understand the concept of two people working together for a short while, then moving on to other things. Bobby wouldn’t be hurt when Zach disappeared from their lives.

  The real question was, would she be hurt? Since she had met Zach, a different and troubling tension had begun to grow in her. She felt prickly, hot and bothered, and terribly confused.

  Zach took her hand as they walked from the restaurant across the well-lighted parking lot to the car.

  “Would you like to come back to my house for hot chocolate?”

  His question struck her as funny, and she smiled up at him. “You’re still pushing that hot chocolate?”

  “I’m devoted to hot chocolate. Kingdoms have been lost and won for hot chocolate, not to mention fair young maidens.”

  Some of her humor faded. “Your tried and true method of seduction?”

  One eyebrow cocked as he stared at her. “I’ll let you know. Right now, the jury’s still out.”

  She stopped in the middle of the parking lot, her expression one of wonderment. “I have never in my life met anyone like you. I never know whether to take you seriously or not.”

  “You’ll learn,” he said reassuringly, and dropped a swift, light, hot kiss on her mouth.

  She sighed, feeling very much like a hit-and-run victim. “You’re a dangerous man, Zach Bennett, and should probably be locked up for your own safety, not to mention mine.”

  With a chuckle, he took her arm, and they started walking again. “Everything will be much better once you stop fighting me.”

  Her hair shimmered in the dim light as she shook her head. “Surrender isn’t in my vocabulary.”

  He grinned. “Then you should be warned, giving up isn’t in my nature.”

  “I was afraid of that.”

  Reaching his car, he opened the passenger door for her, helped her in, shut the door after her, then walked around to his side.

  A small smile curved Cassidy’s mouth as she buckled her seat belt and followed Zach's progress around the car. Still absorbed by the warmth of his kiss and his humor, she was caught totally off guard by the sight of two men materializing out of nowhere. Before she knew what was happening, they had grabbed Zach and hurled him up against the car. The car rocked from the impact.

  She cried out in horror and reached for her seat belt release, but fright made her fingers clumsy. She could see that one of the men had Zach’s arm twisted behind his back and had him flattened against the car. The other man was searching him.

  It seemed like forever, but in reality it was only seconds before she was able to unfasten her seat belt. She flung open the car door and bolted out just in time to see the two men throw Zach to the ground and run away.

  She raced around the car and dropped down beside him. “Zach, are you all right? Did they hurt you? Did they hit you? Good heavens, Zach, say something to me. Tell me you’re all right.”

  He looked up at her. “I'll be glad to as soon as you stop talking.”

  She felt like hitting him; she felt like hugging him with all her might. She drew a ragged breath. “Are you okay?”.

  He sat up slowly. “I’m fine. I've just had the breath knocked out of me, that’s all.”

  With nervous agitation, she brushed some of the parking lot dirt from his sport jacket. “I’m calling the paramedics first, and then the police.”

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  “Why? They were brutal. Do you know who they were or what they wanted?”

  He sat quietly, letting her tidy him up. “I don’t know who they were, but I know what they wanted. The disk.”

  Her hand stilled on his shoulder. “They were after the master disk?”

  He nodded. “I’m sure they were hired by the person who’s trying to steal The Game. I’ve been half expecting this. Whoever it is has tried to search my office, but hasn’t had any success. I figured sooner or later it would occur to them I might be carrying the disk. A three-and-a-half-inch disk would easily fit into my billfold.”

  She stared at his calm demeanor in disbelief. “Was it in there?”

  “No. Neither was any money or credit cards - purposely. I have an account at the restaurant, and I signed for our dinner tonight. Only my driver’s license was in my billfold, and I’m sure they left that. They dropped the billfold on the ground behind you.”

  She turned, retrieved the billfold, and held it open up to the light. His driver’s license was in place. Tears filled her eyes. The attack on Zach had lasted less than a minute, but it had been the worst minute she had spent in a long time, and she still hadn’t recovered. Determinedly she blinked the tears away and focused on the picture of him on the license. “This is a really awful picture of you, Zach. You’ve got the silliest grin on your face, and it looks as if you didn’t comb your hair that morning.”

  “Actually, I don’t think I did.”

  Deeply shaken that someone had hurt him, she lashed out at him. “You were stupid to put yourself in so much danger. If you were expecting this, why didn’t you hire a bodyguard?”

  “Lily would have wanted the job, and I figured I already pay her enough as it is.”

  “You’re joking again, but this is serious.”

  He reached out and gently caressed her cheek. “Yes, I'm joking, and yes, this is serious. But being able to see humor in situations that may even be tragic is how people make it through life, Cassidy. It’s something you’ve got to learn.” He glanced around the parking lot and moved to get up. “Let's get out of here.”

  “Wait,” she said, worriedly grabbing him. “Don’t move. You may be hurt worse than you think. They threw you hard against the car and could have broken some of your ribs. Stay here, and I’ll go back to the restaurant and call for a doctor.”

  “Don’t be silly.”

  Before she could stop him again, he got to his feet. She stood, too, and looked at him with exasperation. “Having a doctor look at you is merely a sensible precaution, Zach.”

  “It would be if I needed one, but I don’t.” He put his hand on the roof of the car for support. “I told you, they only knocked the wind out of me.”

  “Uh-huh.” She took his arm and led him around to the passenger side of the car, where the door was still open. “You’re being stubborn and childish about this, but then I don’t know why I expected anything less from you. You’re an utterly impossible man. Get in. I'm driving, and I’m going to take you home.”

  He grinned. “Anything you say, Cassidy.”

  Her arm around Zach’s waist, supporting him, Cassidy switched on the hall light just inside the front door of his house. “Where’s Lily?”

  “She’s at her tae kwon do class. After that she’s spending the night at her sister’s.”

  “She has a sister?” Cassidy asked in surprise.

  “A little frightening, isn’t it? Their parents actually produced two of them.”

  “Never mind. I’ll get you to your room myself. Do you think you can climb the stairs?”

  “I’ll try.” He smiled to himself, taking pleasure in the way she was fussing over him. He had told her the truth when he had said he wasn’t hurt, and he had had plenty of time to recover his breath on the drive back to the house. But as long as she wanted to take care of him, he was willing to let her.

  Up in the bedroom, she switched on the nightstand light, pushed the stuffed toys to one side of the bed, and pull
ed back the covers. Then she turned to help him off with his sport coat. With a couple of shrugs from him, the coat slipped into her hands, smelling of citrus and Zach. The scent glided past her guard, nearly intoxicating her before she realized it.

  “Lie down,” she said, more curtly than she had meant to. But he obediently dropped onto the bed. She went to the end of the bed and pulled off his shoes. “I’m giving you your way tonight - ”

  “That’s all I’ve ever asked.”

  The look she cast him was repressive. “ - but if you are in any pain at all tomorrow, and I don’t care how little, just any twinge of pain at all, you’re going to the doctor.”

  “Did you fuss over Bobby’s every scratch and cut this way?”

  She returned to the head of the bed. “You weren’t merely scratched or cut, Zach. Those men threw you up against that car with brutal force. Anyone with a modicum of sense would do the same thing for you as I am.”

  “Oh, I see.” He didn’t want to give himself away, but he was hard put not to laugh. Her attention delighted him, but even more than that, his heart filled with love and his body filled with an aching longing as he watched her flutter about, hanging up his sport coat and putting his shoes in the closet. And she looked beautiful and very, very precious as she came down beside him and leaned forward to loosen his tie and undo the first few buttons of his shirt.

  “Would you take off my tie, please?” he murmured huskily.

  She nodded and stripped it from around his neck. “Is that better?”

  “Yes, but could you undo the rest of the buttons on my shirt?”

  “Are you having trouble breathing?” she asked, concerned, as she hurried to do as he asked.

  “Remember when you told me you had trouble breathing when I was close?”

  Her hands slowed on the buttons. “Yes.”

  “I have the same trouble.”

  “I don’t understand. Are you having trouble breathing? Do you need something?”

  “Yes and yes.” His voice grew thicker with each word. “You.” He curled his hands around her soft upper arms. “I need you to touch me.” There was something new in his eyes, she realized, and wondered why she had been so slow to see it. The dreaminess had become focused with desire. The twinkling had changed to fire. “Zach - ”